Following Orders
by Mayu Sato
Summary: Why Beast Boy left the Doom Patrol.
1. Chapter 1

Following orders

The night was early and cool. Stars were beginning to crest over the moon, twinkling and shining like a million cosmic fireflies lighting the dark velvet sky. Beast Boy sat on his bed, swinging his legs over the edge and twiddling his thumbs as he stared blankly out the window. He sighed and flopped back onto the mattress, limbs slaying out lifelessly. His lean chest rose as the changeling sighed, Mento's harsh words ringing in his elfin ears.

"The only thing you did is disobey a direct order. I told you to destroy the generator, not save us."

But didn't he see that would've been impossible for the youngest Doom Patrol member? His teammate's safety would always be his first priority. Beast Boy's bottom lip trembled and he drew his knees up to his chest. He'd lost his parents, he wasn't going to let any more people he loved die when he could prevent it. The child wrapped his arms around his knees and took a wobbly breath. "You'll never be part of this team. You'll never be part of this team." Mento's stern voice echoed in his mind so clearly that BB idly wondered if the older man wasn't beaming the thoughts right into his head just to make him leave.

"Sometimes I want to disappear, just to see who'd notice." Rita would notice. So would Negative Man and Tin Man. Mento… he'd probably observe that things were quieter, which would equate to Beast Boy's absence. His emerald eyes closed and he tried to force himself to sleep, but muffled voices distracted him. It sounded like Mento, and Rita.

The shape shifter changed into barn owl and listened intently to the argument.

"He saved us, Steve!"

"If he doesn't get it through his thick green head that he has to follows orders he'll never make it in this team!"

"He's a child, Steve, he can learn." Rita said, adding, "Did you see how proud he was? He saved us and transformed into a tyrannosaurus, but all you could do was beret him."

Manto's voice became hard and cold, "that boy is not my son, Rita, and he's not yours either."

Beast Boy gasped and changed back into a human, tears threatening to overflow. A soft knock on the door made him freeze, heat searing over his body in fear. Had Mento found out he was eavesdropping?

"W-who is it?" he called uncertainly, stepping back as a frightened animal would.

"Negative Man, may I come in?" the dry, monotones voice asked politely.

"Uh, yeah."

The mummy entered, silently closing the door behind him. He looked at the team's youngest member competitively, thinking about how to approach him.

"How are you doing?"

Beast Boy opened his mouth to reply, wincing as Mento's voice rose and penetrated his rooms walls. The held-in tears spilled over, streaking down his cheeks. The boy quickly wiped at them with his sleeve, but they just kept falling. He hated himself for crying in front of another, and after he'd done so well when Mento publicly scolded him. Negative Man showed no signs of disgust, though. He sat on the edge of the racecar bad (something Rita had gladly indulged the child with) and patted the space next to him. "It's not a weakness, you know."

"Huh?" Beast Boy hiccupped questioningly, swaying on the spot he seemed to be rooted to, arms crossed tightly over his chest.

"Crying, emotions, they're not a weakness, even if Mento acts like they are."

The changeling hesitantly stepped closer, rubbing at his leaking eyes one last time.

"T-they're not?" Negative Man quirked a smile and nodded, motioning for Beast Boy to join him again. This time he did, flinging himself at the man and burying his face in his stomach. The sarcastic mummy gently rubbed at the boy's shaking shoulders, saying nothing. "Did I do the right thing today?" BB asked, voice cracking.

The pessimist reclined on his forearms casually, Beast Boy following him. "What do you think?" he answered the question with a question."

"I-I had to save you guys, it—it wasn't an option not to." He said slowly. Negative Man nodded understandingly.

"If you want my opinion, Mento's being a jerk. You did a great thing saving us. Even if you'd destroyed the generator and we'd died—" Beast Boy grimaced painfully. "—the members of the Brotherhood of Evil could still have escaped, or they might have more members dispatched all over the world that we don't even know about. If you'd let us die like that suicidal psycho of a captain wanted the Brotherhood of Evil would still be a threat and, no offence kid, I don't think you can take them on by yourself."

The green skinned boy swallowed and sat up, nodding as he considered Negative Man's words. They made sense. Perfect sense, even. The radioactive man clapped him on the shoulder and got up. "Feel better?"

"Yeah, thanks, Larry."

Lawrence smiled slightly and started for the door, saying one last thing to the kid before exiting the room.

"Don't let Mento get to you. We all love you, Green Bean." With that he was gone, leaving Beast Boy to his thoughts.

. . .

Beast Boy tumbled after Mallah shoved him, body bouncing on the ground. Elastic Girl grew in size and stepped over him, trying to stomp on the gorilla. The Doom Patrol was battling the Brotherhood evil. Again. Beast Boy was starting to get worried. The fight had lasted for hours now and their enemies showed no signs of retreating. Rita was scraped up and her ankle sprained, but she kept on going. Negative Man was visibly straining to go on, and Robot Man was fairing no better. Mento was the least damaged physically, but he was clearly pained mentally.

"Mento, we have to reteat!" the Green Thing shrilly cried in his childish voice, his vision blurring as his transformed into a ram and pushed a soldier away. The mind reader glared at him so sourly that if looks could kill he'd of dropped dead.

"No! We have to keep going." The telepath urged, frowning deeply.

"Gar is right, Mento. We're defeated. To stay is suicide." Negative Man explained impatiently, glancing at Rita for support.

"Perhaps we need to leave and live to fight another day." She said diplomatically, trying to hide the pain she was in.

Their leader exploded in rage. "So what if we're a little tired, we can't give up!" he exclaimed, punching a faceless villain out as he spoke. "We're so close to stopping him, I can feel it. Just one more hour and the Brotherhood of Evil will be no more. We go on. Doom Patrol, attack!"

They'd been so focused on listening that no one saw Mallah until it was too late. The beast pushed Mento to the floor as the rest of the team was overtaken, all accept BB, who'd turned into a rat. Beast Boy felt was world slow down as the gun raised to shoot Mento. He knew he was too weak to change into anything big, so he morphed into himself, a fragile human. It was like he was going in slow motion as Beast Boy launched himself in front of Mento, small body crumbling as the blast hit him full on. Distantly Mento heard someone shriek 'no,' but he could only hear the gurgling coming from Beast Boy as he gasped for air, tiny frame convulsing against the larger man's body.

Mento pushed the boy off him and staggered to his feet.

"Doom Patrol, don't look back!" he shouted, leading them on to take down the Brotherhood of Evil despite Rita's hysterical protests.

The team fought with renewed vigor, taking down Mallah while the Bain escaped. While the battle moved away Beast Boy regained consciousness, smoking body twitching as he pushed himself up, looking around at the smoldering wreckage. In the distance he saw billowing smoke and heard the noise of conflict. They had abandoned him. Mento had left him for dead to peruse the Brain. The crushed youth fought back tears of betrayal, standing tall and proud as he walked toward the horizon. He tore the oppressive mask from him face and threw it to the floor, never looking back.

Authors note: We know Mento is the reason our favorite Green Bean left and joined the titans, but I wanted something more in depth. I don't own Teen Titans, the Doom Patrol, or any characters used in this story. I hope you enjoyed, please review. I may possibly write a squeal, but only if enough people want one.


	2. Chapter 2

Home Teen Titans

A shaggy green dog dashed across the slick street, narrowly avoiding an aggressive driver. They honked obnoxiously at him, headlights cutting through the heavy rain to catch a glimpse of the limping animal. Beast Boy whimpered and cowered in a bush as lighting lit up the sky, violent thunder following. He whined and collapsed on the wet grass, paws scraping at his snout. The dog's emerald eyes were melting, the tears hidden by the precipitation. Beast Boy was lost, alone, and afraid. It had been a barely over a week after he'd left the Doom Patrol and he was already emaciated.

The adolescent had been afraid that his famil—ex-teammates were looking for him, so he'd been forced to travel in animal form. Being green all over had its disadvantages. Since leaving he hadn't found much food and he'd been walking for days. Beast Boy whimpered, feeling as though hell dogs were gnawing at his insides. He tried to stand, but his legs gave out beneath him. Giving up he made shelter out of the shrubbery and hunkered down for the night.

He woke up to pink, the early morning light glowing under his eyelids. The mutt yawned and stretched his gangly body out, tongue rolling out of his mouth. Beast Boy morphed into a human and extended his arms, scratching his overgrown hair, knocking dust from it. He rubbed at his pained knee, massaging the knots out. He changed into a squirrel this time and began searching for food. He managed to find some pine nuts, but his metabolism burned through them quickly. With nothing else to do he thought about what to do, where to go, and how to make it there. Should he just go home to the mansion? He could say that he'd woken up disoriented and wandered off. They'd want to believe it, Rita would anyway. She'd welcome him back with open arms and a teary smile, hugging and coddling him, eating up any lie he told her. Anything that meant he hadn't gone voluntarily, that he really was happy there with the Doom Patrol.

And Beast Boy would return her embrace tightly, smiling and crying until Mento broke the reunion apart, making up some excuse about a mission that needed doing. The almost teenager wondered if they even missed him. Maybe they had already moved on, the way Mento risked their lives each mission he wouldn't be surprised if they had lost multiple partners in the past. Beast Boy held onto this idea in hopes it would strengthen his resolve to leave. It was time to make a life for himself, to be free, to be happy...

Police sirens whirled, making his ears and interest perk. Should he investigate? The law enforcements could probably handle whatever it was… An explosion shook the ground. Beast Boy groaned in exasperation, head hung, and became a bird. The ruckus was an army of soldiers flooding the streets. The Doom Patrol was already at the scene, and they didn't look like they were doing too well. Beast Boy shook his head and landed as a human in a crouch. Even if he wasn't part of the Doom Patrol he had a moral obligation to protect the citizens.

The other superheroes didn't notice him right away, but that was no surprise because they were busy evacuating the civilians. In the end they split up, Rita guiding the people away while Tin and Negative Man scattered to tackle the swarming masses of soldiers.

Beast Boy's head snapped left and right, searching for the source of a shrill scream. It was a toddler was sitting on the ground, about to be trampled. With his limited energy he became a vulture and swooped over, grabbing her by the back of her shirt and safely depositing her with a group of people on the sidelines. As he prepared to leave a massive hand wrapped painfully around him. Beast Boy squawked and transformed into every animal in his limited repertoire, but the vice grip only tightened. His body went limp in defeat as he internally came to peace with death, accepting fate. But death didn't come.

His eyes cracked open, and then shot up in shock, seeing Mento with a slim, powerful pistol in his hand. Etched deeply into his expression were lines of hate and displeasure, his eyes murderous.

"Let the boy go." He ordered icily, voice deep and hard. It made Beast Boy withdraw. Well, it would have if he could move.

Mullah smirked and tightened his grip teasingly before letting it go looser.

"Ah, showing some compassion now? You weren't too keen on it last time." Mento raised the gun to the gorillas head threateningly.

"I said. Let. Him. GO."

"No, I rather like holding the green chap. You won't shoot, not when I have him… or maybe you would. Are you willing to murder him along with me, Mento?" He said, biding his time. "You certainly showed no remorse leaving the poor child for dead last time we fought." Mullah purred into Beast Boy's ears, grinning wickedly. "Maybe he doesn't want you to save him, hmm? Perhaps the boy would like to join us, where he'd be treated like an equal instead of a tool. You only value him when you need him."

"Like you would do different." As soon as the words left his lips Mento regretted them. He sounded so… cruel, like he really was only using the orphaned child for his shape-shifting abilities. Mullah ignored him and turned Beast Boy to look him in the eyes.

"What do you say, Changeling? Join the Brotherhood and learn from the best, be treated like an adult instead of an ignorant child."

Beast Boy's eyes shined with fear, then his expression changed into one of indignant fury. "I'd never join you creeps!" he cried, changing into a dog and biting Mullah's hand as hard as possible. The gorilla dropped him in surprise. Mento fired and tackled the ape, handcuffing him. Meanwhile the green boy stumbled away, trying to run.

"Wait!" Mento cried, leaving Mullah on the ground. "Beast Boy, wait!" but he kept running, tears blurring his vision. "Son!"

That one world made him slow to a halt, body wracked with shivers. Mento caught up with him, placing his hands on the boy's slim shoulders to ensure he couldn't run again. "Please, just listen."

The smaller male wheeled around and smacked the hands away. "You left me there! Why are you torturing me like this?" He was crying fully now, voice cracking. He broke down, resolve crumbling. The older man was silent, lips pursed. He let the youth throw the tantrum both of them deserved. He didn't move or dodge when Beast Boy punched him until he was too exhausted to move. When he was done the boy was hardly able to stay on his feet, swaying dizzily. Mento knelt and pulled him into a hug, stroking his hair.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, son."

Mento was… apologizing? Too him? Beast Boy bit his lip and buried his face in his guardians shoulder. "I was wrong, please, come home."

Beast Boy hiccupped and shook his head, "No. I-I can't do this. Tell Rita I'll miss her, but I can't go back."

Mento stared at him with sad eyes.

"I need to go and make a new life for myself. The Doom Patrol is my family, but I need to leave."

The telepath sighed quietly and patted him on the shoulder. "I understand. Just remember, you'll always have a home with us."

Beast Boy looked up, shock flickering across his expression. He smiled and threw his arms around Mento's neck. They hugged tightly one last time before Beast Boy pulled away.

"I'm going to leave before the rest of them get back. I don't think I could bare seeing Rit—Elastic Girl cry."

"Wait." Mento rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. "Get yourself something to eat, you look half starved."

The boy pocketed the money and stood, dashing into the night. He turned and smiled one last time at Mento before disappearing. The man closed his eyes and allowed a brief smile to tug at his lips. "Goodbye, son."

Beast Boy stood at the edge of Jump City, wind sweeping his hair back. "Goodbye, Dad."

End

I don't own Teen Titans, or Beast Boy, or Mento, or any other characters in this story.


End file.
